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Is the global trading system broken? Why the fate of the WTO and CUSMA matter for Canada

The World Trade Organization and the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement have been shaken by U.S. President Trump’s erratic trade actions. The WTO, which marked its 30th anniversary this year, is the foundation of the global trading system, and the five year old CUSMA has so far protected Canada from the worst of the current trade storm. Even though over two thirds of global trade still follows its rules, is the WTO on life support? And will CUSMA survive the forthcoming review process?

Professor Emeritus Robert Wolfe is one of Canada’s leading experts on trade policy. He was a foreign service officer for many years, serving abroad in the Canadian High Commission in Bangladesh and in Paris in the Canadian Delegation to the OECD. In Ottawa he worked in national security and in international economic relations. After completing a doctorate in Political Studies at Queen’s, Wolfe joined the School of Policy Studies in 1995. He taught the required course on policy analysis throughout his time at Queen’s, and in 2009 launched the annual Queen’s Institute on Trade Policy for mid-career public servants. Professor Wolfe has published extensively on Canadian trade policy. His co-edited book Redesigning Canadian Trade Policies for New Global Realities was the winner of the 2018 Doug Purvis Memorial prize from the Canadian Economics Association. The bulk of his work is on the World Trade Organization, with a particular interest in transparency mechanisms. His most recent publications and blog posts are on WTO reform, including 'On the Rocks: The WTO’s Member-Driven Consensus Decision-Making’ in the current issue of the Indian journal Trade, Law and Development.